Quick-traverse mechanism for feeds for machine-tools



L. E. WAITE.

QUICK TRAVERSE MECHANISM FOR FEEDS FOR MACHINE TOOLS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 25, 1919.

1,340,586. Patented y 18, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

. I l 'ORL 33 53? 0Q E L. E. WAITE.

QUICK TRAVERSE MECHANISM FOR FEEDS FOR MACHINE TOOLS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 25.1919.

1,340,586, Patented May 18, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- WITNESSES L. E. WAITE.

QUICK TRAVERSE MECHANISM FOR FEEDS FOR MACHINE TOOLS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 25. 1919.

1,340,586. Patented y 18, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

INVENTOR f QQM Mxz, 5

LORENZO n. WAITE, or TOLEDO, OHIO.

QUICK-TRAVERSE MECHANISM FOR FEEDS FOR MACHINE-TOOLS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 18, 1920.

Application filed June 25, 1919. Serial No. 306,524.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lonmvzo E. WAITE, a citizen of the United States, residin at T0- ledo, in the county of Lucas and @tate of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Quick-Traverse Mechanisms for Feeds for Machine-Tools of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to quick traverse mechanisms for feeds for machine tools and has particular reference to the feeds for milling machines.

The principal object of this invention is to provide for machine tools a quick traverse mechanism so correlated to the regular or working drive that only one of them can be connected to the main or telescopic feedshaft at the same time. Another object is to provide .means whereby a large number of working speeds may be applied to the main feed-shaft for the knee-feed, crossfeed, and table-feed. Other objects appear hereinafter.

On the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of a portion of a milling machine containing my invention; Fig. 2, a horizontal section on the line II-II, Fig. 3; Fig. 3, an elevation of a fragment of the said machine looking at Fig. 2 toward the left; Fig. 4, a vertical section on the line IV-IV, Fig. 5, parts being broken away; and Fi 5, a vertical section on the line VV, Fig. 4.

On the drawings, 1 represents the column of a milling machine and 2 a vertically movable knee slidable on the front thereof. 3 is the carriage having horizontal travel on the knee toward and from. the column, and 4 is the table movable horizontally on the carriage at right angles to the travel of the carriage. The feeds for the knee, carriage, and table are effected through the shaft 5 connected to the collar 6 by the telescopic shaft 7. The parts so far described are wellknown and require no further explanation.

8 is the feed casing secured to the side of the column and contains the mechanism now to be described. The collar 6 is connected to the front end of theshaft 9 by the pin 10. Just back of the collar 6 the shaft 9 carries the clutch collar or member 11 having clutchteeth on its rear face. On the shaft 9 back of the member 11 is the elongated member or sleeve 12 loose thereon and having on its forward end clutch-teeth to engage with those 011 the member 11. The rear end of the sleeve has keyed thereto the gear 13. This sleeve passes through an opening in the front wall of the casing 8 and is supported by the ball-bearing 14 carried by the recess 15 in the rear side of the said wall. The shaft 9 also supports the sleeve 16 loose thereon and having rigid therewith at its rear end the friction cone-clutch member 17. The opposite end of the sleeve has the wormgear 18 keyed thereto, the sleeve passing through the opening 19 in the internal projection 20 of the rear wall of the casing and supported by the roller bearing 21 seated in the recess 22 in the front face of the projection. The rear end of the shaft 9 has keyed thereto the clutch-member 23 adapted to cooperate with the member 17 to cause the shaft 9 and the gear 18 to rotate together. The two described pairs of clutch-members are arranged so that when the members 11 and 12 are engaged the members 17 and 23 are disengaged; and when the latter are enga ed the former are disengaged.

he shaft 9 has keyed thereto the gear or collar 24 having its lower side in a recess in the upper side of the shoe 25 moved forwardly and rearwardly by the screw 26,

. which has a long bearing in a thickened portion 27 of the front Wall of the casing 8 The. screw 26 has connected thereto by the pin 28 the collar 29 which through the telescopic shaft 30 is connected to the shaft 31 carried by the'side of the knee 2. The shaft is oscillated by the handle 32 on the front end thereof.

The gear 18 is driven by the worm 33 on the quick-travel shaft 34 which is driven at constant fast speed from any suitable source,

and gives quick traverse speed to the shaft 9 when connected thereto through the clutchmembers 17 and 23.

The gear 13 is driven by the gear 35 keyed to the shaft 36 having bearings in the casing 8. On this shaft are keyed the large gear 37 and the small gear 38, spaced from each other. The shaft 39 carried by the said casing and parallel with the shaft 36 carries the two gears 40 and 41 rigidly connected together on the said shaft. They are slidable in one direction to connect the gears 37 and 40 and in the opposite direction to connect the gears 38 and 41.

The shaft 39 carries two spaced rigidly connected gears 42 and 43 slidable thereon in one direction to engage the gear 42 with the gear 44 on the sha t 45 which is supported by the casing 8 parallel with the shafts 36 and 39. The large and small gears 42 and 43 are slid in the opposite direction to engage the gear 43 with the gear 46, which together with the gear 44 and the gear 47 are rigidly connected to the shaft 45.

The shaft 48, parallel with the shafts 36, 39, and 45 and supported by the casing 8, has the two slidable spaced connected gears 49 and 50, the former engageable with the gear 46 and the latter with the gear 47. The shaft 48 has a second pair of slidable spaced connected gears 51 and 52, the former engageable with the gear 53 on the shaft 45, and the latter with the gear 54 on the same shaft. The shaft 48 is driven from the shaft 55 through the bevel-gears 56. The shaft 55 is driven by any suitable power within the column in a manner well understood.

The shaft 31 is surrounded by a helical spring 57 having one end secured to the said shaft and the other end to the fixed bearing 58 for the shaft. The spring is so tensioned that it tends to. rotate the shaft anticlockwise, looking at the shaft from the left, Fig. 1, and so that, if the shaft has been rotated in the opposite direction by the handle 32 and then released, it will immediately be returned to its normal position by the spring.

In the regular operation of the machine, that is when the machine is performing its regular cutting operation, the clutch-member 11 is locked to the clutch-teeth on the sleeve 12, the shaft 55 through the gears 56 and the various gears on the shafts 48, 45, 39 and 36 transmitting power to the gear 13 directly from the gear 35 (Fig. 5). The several sliding gears on the shafts 39 and 48 are of different sizes and engage with various sizes of gears on the shafts 36 and 45, so that by making selector gear-connections a large number of working or regular speeds can be given to the shaft 9, and consequently to the various feeds controlled by the shaft 5. These feeds may be the usual well-known. feeds and need not be described. I have shown in my application, Serial Number 302,440, filed June 7, 1919, the knee, carriage and table-feeds, all driven from a shaft (41) corresponding to the shaft 5 of the present application.

Assuming, for example, that the table 4 has been moved in one direction to the end of its working traverse and that it is desired to give the table a quick traverse in the opposite direction in order to begin a fresh working traverse as soon as possible, the handle 32 is pushed down putting the spring 57 under increased tension, and rotating the screw 26 so as to make the shoe travel toward the left (Fig. 4) and to move the shaft 9 also to the left, bringing the members 11 and 12 out of engagement and the clutchmembers 17 and 23 into engagement. As the clutch-member 17 is driven by the highspeed quick traverse shaft 34, the table 4 is quickly returned to its position for a fresh operation. As soon as the table reaches this position, the handle 32 is released and the spring 57 rotates the screw so as to move the clutch-members 17, 23 apart and the members 11, 12 into engagement, whereupon the regular working feed connections are re established. In case the operator becomes careless and drops the handle 32, no harm can come to the machine as the quick traverse is prevented from further travel by the prompt action of the spring 57.

In the example just given, it was assumed that the quick-traverse was to operate on reversal of the table, but it is to be understood that the quick-traverse will operate the table in either direction, and that it will also operate the knee and carriage in either direction, depending on the direction of rotation of the quick-traverse shaft 34.

I have not shown the various means for moving the sliding gears from one position to another, as such means are in common use and well-known to every one acquainted with the art.

I claim 1. In a machine tool, a traveling worksupporting means, a feed shaft for the same, separately-actuated drive and quick-traverse shafts, speed-change mechanism driven by the drive shaft, and means whereby either the speed-change mechanism or the quick-traverse shaft may be put into driving relation with the feed shaft.

2. In a machine-tool, a traveling worksupporting means, a main feed-shaft for the same, a drive-shaft, speed-change mecha nism driven by the drive-shaft, a quick traverse shaft, means for effecting driving connections between the speed-change mechanism and the main feed-shaft, means for effecting driving connections between the quick traverse shaft and the main feed shaft, and means for automatically efi'ecting the driving connections between the speed-change mechanism and the said feedshaft whenever the second means is released.

3. In a machine-tool, a traveling worksupporting means, a main feed-shaft for the same, a longitudinally-slidable shaft for driving the feed-shaft, a pair. of sleeves loose on the shaft, speed-change gearing connected to drive one sleeve, and a highspeed quick traverse shaft connected to drive the other sleeve, clutches operable by sliding the said slidable shaft whereby the speed-change gearing may be connected with its sleeve only when the quick traverse shaft is disconnected under its sleeve, and the quick traverse shaft may be connected with its sleeve only when the speed-change gearing is disconnected from its sleeve.

4. In a machine-tool, a traveling work supporting means, a main feed shaft for the same, a longitudinally-slidable shaft for driving the feed shaft, a pair of sleeves loose on the shaft, speed-change gearing connected to drive one sleeve, a hi h-speed quick traverse connected to drive t e other sleeve, clutches operable by sliding the said slidable shaft whereby the s eed-change gearing may be connected wit its sleeve only when the quick traverse shaft is disconnected with its sleeve, and the quick traverse shaft may be connected with its sleeve only when the speed change caring is disconnected from its sleeve, an means biasing the said slidable shaft toward maintaining its connection with the speed-change gearing.

5. In a machine-tool, a traveling worksupporting means, a main feed-shaft for the same, a longitudinally-slidable shaft for driving the feed-shaft, a pair of sleeves loose on the shaft, speed-chan e gearing connected to drive one sleeve, a i -spee quick traverse shaft connected to rive the other sleeve, clutches operable by sliding the said slidable shaft whereby the speedchange gearing may be connected with its sleeve only when the quick traverse shaft is disconnected under its sleeve, and the nick traverse shaft may be connected wit its sleeve only when the speed-change gearing is disconnected from its sleeve, a sliding shoe adapted to slide the slidable shaft in opposite directions, an oscillator screw for operating the shoe, and means or rotating the screw.

6. In a machine-tool, a traveling worksupporting means, a main-feed shaft for the same, a longitudinally-slidable shaft for driving the feed-shaft, a pair of sleeves loose on the shaft, speed-chan e earin connected to drive one sleeve, a ii fi-spee quick traverse shaft connected to rive the other sleeve, clutches operable by sliding the said slidable shaft whereby the s eedchange gearing may be connected wit its sleeve only when the quick traverse shaft is disconnected under its sleeve, and the quick traverse shaft may be connected with its.

sleeve only when the speed-change gearing is disconnected from its sleeve, a sliding shoe adapted to slide the slidable shaft in opposite directions, an oscillatory screw for operating the shoe, means for rotatin the screw in one direction, and means for iasing the screw to rotate automatically in the other direction.

Signed at Toledo, Ohio, this 21st day of June, 1919.

- LORENZO E. WAITE. 

